Better Days

Twenty years ago, Grace wanted nothing more than to be with Trent - a boy with a guitar and a lot of promises. Twenty years ago, Dorothy wanted nothing more than for her daughter to fulfil her potential. In a moment of heartbreak and fury, Grace makes a split-second decision to board a plane to London and put an ocean between them. There, Grace takes a job answering calls for a wannabe music mogul and sends her life on a dazzling trajectory, resulting in an illustrious career managing a megastar, large houses in glamorous places, two children (one who might be a sociopath but the other seems fine) and marriage to Ed. Ed who would do anything for her ... except move back in. Now, Grace is dragging her kids and a particularly irritating dachshund to her childhood home, where Dorothy is waiting with a roast and inevitable questions about where it all went wrong. On a McDonald's pitstop, among fractious kids and a runaway dog, she bumps into a ghost from the past ... Trent. Claire Zorn perfectly encapsulates the pitfalls of fledgling adulthood and the 'what ifs' of later life. She explores how the demands of being an adult - career, marriage, motherhood - can chip away at who we are, and she accomplishes it with writing that is compassionate, creative, funny and thought-provoking.